Space · Living in space and watching the sky
The solar eclipse
The Moon covering the Sun
You can see it with your eyes
Finding it in the sky
When to look
Only when the Moon is new, and not every month. From one particular place on Earth it happens rarely: decades or centuries can pass before totality returns over the same city.
How to recognize it
You do not search for it in the sky: you look only through a suitable filter, never with the naked eye. All around, a strange light falls, the air cools and the birds stop singing.
To get an idea
If the Moon were a little smaller, it could never cover the Sun completely.
The solar corona can be seen only during those few minutes when the disk is covered.
Fun facts
These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.
During the total phase you can study the solar corona, which is usually invisible.
Central solar eclipses are divided into total, annular and hybrid, depending on the geometry.
The total phase can be seen only along a narrow strip of the Earth's surface.
From the same city, totality may not come back for whole centuries.
During the eclipse the light drops, the air cools and animals change their behavior.
The Sun must never be looked at directly: sunglasses are not a suitable filter.
Test yourself
The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.
Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book
What happens in a solar eclipse?
Question 2 of 5
In what phase can it happen?
Question 3 of 5
Why can the Moon cover the Sun?
Question 4 of 5
What can you see during the total phase?
Question 5 of 5
How do you watch a solar eclipse?
Riddles
I come when your companion moves in front of the fire, and for a few minutes I give you back something the light usually hides from you: a pearly crown. What am I?
I exist thanks to a coincidence nobody arranged: two disks of very different sizes that look the same from here. If one of them were a bit smaller, I would not exist. What am I?
I am beautiful but you must not look me in the eye for any reason: you need filters made for the job, or the trick of a pinhole in a card that projects my image. What am I?
Try it yourself
The safe, free method is projection: a pinhole in a card projects the image of the Sun onto a second card, and you see the missing slice.
Look at the shadows of trees during a partial eclipse: among the leaves dozens of little crescents form, because every gap acts as a pinhole.
The words
- annular eclipse
- When the Moon is too far away and leaves a ring of Sun uncovered.
Sources: Wikidata (Q3887), Wikipedia (Eclissi solare).